CUPERTINO — A desire for “Monkey Drums” won a lucky German man thousands of dollars in free iTunes purchases Wednesday, as his purchase of the iTunes song was the milestone 25 billionth song downloaded from the Apple (AAPL) online store.

Phillip Lüpke, of Germany, downloaded “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix) by Chase Buch to push Apple to the mark. The tech giant announced Wednesday that it had given Lüpke an iTunes gift card worth 10,000 euros — about $13,500 — as a reward.

“We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” Apple software executive Eddy Cue said in Wednesday’s news release.

Apple has made a habit out of rewarding customers who push them to landmark numbers. In 2012, it gave a Chinese customer a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 25 billionth mobile application from the App Store, and British customer Gail Davis received the same prize for downloading the 10 billionth app in 2011.

The previous iTunes landmark of 10 billion songs downloaded has so far been the only time such a prize was won by an American, Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Ga. The 10 billionth song downloaded was “Guess Things Happen That Way,” by Johnny Cash.

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.

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